Here it is! The definitive guide to recycling your milk bottle tops in the UK.

Some of these ways support charity so it’s a win-win: you’re turning your rubbish into a resource that benefits others AND you’re keeping plastic out of landfill.

Most local authorities recycle plastic milk bottles, but not all will take the plastic tops. Some local authorities ask you to put them on the bottle when recycling, others ask you to remove the tops and recycle them separately and others say to landfill the tops!

CHARITY OF YOUR CHOICE

GHS will collect and recycle milk bottle tops for the charity of your choice. There is a minimum payment amount of 500 kgs but they will keep track of the amount you send in if you just want to post a small pack at a time.

Why not set up a collection point at your workplace or children’s school?

LOCAL SCRAPSTORE

The Children’s Scrapstore are a charity that collects safe waste from business which can re-used as a low cost creative resource by their member groups. They stock all sorts of things people need for creative play such as paper and card, foam, plastic pots, tubes and tubs and fabric. Members can fill a trolley to the brim for around £13. So it really is a case of one man’s trash is another man’s treasure!

HS4B

Ian runs HS4B (Help & Support for Bankrupt People); a charity for helping bankrupt people. HS4B provide a non judgemental environment both on and offline for people that have been made bankrupt.

As well as plastic milk bottle tops, Ian accepts margarine pot lids, plastic lids from jars like coffee jars etc and the bulky plastic tops you get on fabric softener bottles.

Mental Health Collection

Michelle from Eco Centricity contacted me this week to tell me about her new collection for plastic milk bottle tops to support local mental health charity, Solent Mind.

Donations of 1-5 bags can be collected from in and around the new forest area, larger donations will need to be dropped off in store due to transport limitations.

For every 500kg of milk bottle Eco-Centricity can collect, £25 will go directly to Solent mind. Meanwhile the milk bottle tops will be upcycled into children’s slides!

Melt Down pet bowls

Louise Beams produces Meltdown Eco Pet Bowls. When she found out her local authority didn’t collect plastic milk bottle tops she decided to make this valuable resource into something instead of throwing it away and her Eco friendly pet bowls were born!

The milk bottle tops are granulated into small pieces by a granulator machine. These smaller pieces are then melted down and pushed through mesh to turn them into small pellets which can be used for injection moulding into brand new products.

What about you – do you know of any schemes to recycle plastic milk bottle tops?

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I am a long time supporter of the Green and Sustainable lifestyle. After being caught in the Boscastle floods in 2004, our family begun a journey to respect and promote the importance of Earth's fragile ecosystem, that focussed on reducing waste. Inspired by the beauty and resourcefulness of this wonderful planet, I have published numerous magazine articles on green issues and the author of four books.

Hi, Thanks for this article. I really enjoy reading all your eco hints and tips. I now save my milk bottle lids for LUSH – the skincare shop. It seems they can recycle them into their new black pots that they put their creams in. Here is a link to the info.

Thanks for mentioning our milk bottle tops collection We have 2 bin bags full now so our collection is growing!
I love the Meltdown pet bowls! I will definately be grabbing some of these as my mum has quite a few cats, and I like to make sure even the pets have green choices